DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on the airport incident in Dubai (all times local):
7:00 p.m.
The
Dubai Media Office says departure and arrival operations at Dubai
International Airport have resumed after several hours of delays caused
by the crash landing of an Emirates Airline flight.
The
carrier says no fatalities were reported among the 300 people onboard
the flight that was arriving from the southern Indian city of
Thiruvananthapuram Wednesday afternoon.
Emirates
predicted there would be an eight-hour delay in operations across its
network, disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers during the
busy summer vacation season.
The
Dubai Media Office said flights resumed at the airport a little before 7
p.m. The airport is the busiest air hub in the world in terms of
international passenger traffic.
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3:30 p.m.
Emirates
says the Boeing 777 involved in an accident on landing at Dubai's main
airport had passengers and crew from 20 countries.
The
airline says the 300 people onboard included 226 from India, 24 Britons
and 11 Emiratis. There were six people each from the United States and
Saudi Arabia, five from Turkey and four from Ireland.
Two
people each came from Australia, Brazil, Germany, Malaysia and
Thailand, and one each from Croatia, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Lebanon, Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia.
T.P.
Seetharam, the Indian ambassador to the UAE, says Indian diplomats have
been dispatched to the airport and had met directly with many
passengers. He says many are in shock, and that only one person — a crew
member — had been taken to the hospital for treatment.
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3:20 p.m.
Passengers
evacuated from an Emirates flight say that minutes before the flight
crash-landed at Dubai airport, the pilot made an announcement that he
needed to make an emergency landing.
Iype
Vallikadan, a reporter from Indian newspaper "Mathrubhumi News," says
the passengers said the pilot spoke to them as the plane neared Dubai on
Wednesday, saying there was a problem with the landing gear and that he
would make an emergency landing.
Passengers
said the cabin crew opened all the emergency exits of the plane and
that all 300 passengers and crew on board the aircraft were evacuated
within minutes of the landing.
The
paper covers the southern Indian state of Kerala, of which
Thiruvananthapuram is the capital. That's the city the flight originated
from.
Hundreds
of thousands of Kerala residents work in the Gulf countries. The
Emirates flight, flying directly from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai, was
immensely popular with people from the state.
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2:50 p.m.
Dubai-based
airline Emirates has confirmed that there were no fatalities on a
flight from India that crash-landed at Dubai's main airport Wednesday.
The carrier says "all passengers and crew are accounted for and safe."
It raised the number of people onboard the flight to 300, saying there were 282 passengers and 18 crew.
The accident happened as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram.
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2:25 p.m.
Dubai's
media office has confirmed that emergency teams have been activated to
respond to a crash landing at the main Dubai International Airport, and
that all passengers and crew have been safely evacuated.
Dubai-based
Emirates said the incident happened as Flight EK521 was arriving from
the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram.
It says the Boeing 777 plane had 275 passengers onboard.
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1:30 p.m.
The
Mideast's biggest airline, Emirates, is confirming that a flight from
India with 275 passengers on board was involved in an accident at
Dubai's main airport.
It gave no details on the fate of those onboard Flight EK521 from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
Video posted online shows black smoke billowing from what looked like an Emirates jetliner lying on its belly on the runway.
Dubai-based Emirates says its "main priority now is the safety and well-being of all involved."
